Innergize … inspire, engage, energize!

Main menu

Tag Archives: coaching a team

Post navigation

So …. I tried to post a link to a September 15 Globe and Mail article entitled ‘Managing Change, Don’t Boss Them Coach Them.’ Thought a list it included of 25 general coaching questions could be useful. But when I tested the link, no joy!

So I decided to offer some of my own not so general coaching questions instead, because I’m still thrashing around the subject I really want to talk about – jop fit or as Yoda would say, “job not-fit!”

Activating here and now motivation

What’s important to you about doing or not doing (fill in the task/action?)

And if there were one thing more?

What do you want to achieve, or avoid?

How else might you achieve/avoid that (answer to previous question?)

What unintended consequences could you be faced with by continuing (the current action?)

Separating facts from interpretation

What are you/we assuming about the situation?

How did you decide that? Or …

I’m wondering, what evidence do you have for believing that?

What can we see/hear/what facts support this?

What else could be true?

Antidotes for impossibility and non-accountability stories
Great for handling “I am” + a negative like stressed, frustrated” and “I can’t ” usually followed by “because … ”

How do you know? (‘How did you decide that?’ works well too.)

What prevents you?

What would happen if you could?

Has there ever been a time when you did?

What was different then?

Handling overwhelm

How is this a problem for you? (Great for issues expressed in long, vague, convoluted and all encompassing statements.)

What is the best way you have handled a situation like this in the past?

What are the moments of choice?

What is the first step you can take?

And the next?

Alternatively … have the person write a list of everything they feel they must do. (Rarely will people come up with more than 20 items.) Next, ask them to rank the list with A, B, C, D in order of priority. Finally ask ‘which would make the biggest shift/improvement’ if they got stared on it immediately. More on coaching skills for managers.